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This Week in Royal Jewels: January 2-15

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January 2-15, 2015
Slowly but surely, the royals are starting to get back in the swing of things. Here are the baubles we saw them wear over the past two weeks…
10. The Dutch royals returned from Christmas break to attend a series of New Year’s receptions. On Wednesday, Queen Maxima wore pearls for the foreign diplomatic reception.

9. Princess Beatrix also attended Wednesday’s reception, wearing a pair of understated gold earrings.

8. Queen Letizia of Spain chose statement earrings and red lips for the Telefonica Ability Awards on Monday.

7. Although she’s favored major earrings lately, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians chose simple pearl earrings for a meeting with the president of the European Council on January 7.

6. On Thursday, the Duchess of Cambridge wore her sapphire and diamond earrings for a visit to a primary school art program.

5. I’m not sure we’ve seen a statement necklace and earring set this year bigger than the one worn by Queen Maxima on a visit to Utrecht on Thursday. WOW.

4. For another awards ceremony on Thursday, Queen Letizia paired ruby earrings with her red outfit.

3. The second and third New Year receptions were held in Denmark last week. Above, Crown Princess Mary wears one of her pairs of aquamarine earrings at the second reception. Here’s Queen Margrethe at the second reception and Margrethe and Mary at the third reception.

2. Zara Phillips was in Australia last week to attend the Magic Millions races, and she piled on precious jewels while she was there. On Friday, she wore a bracelet, earrings, and ring in diamonds — the diamond ring alone reportedly weighs more than five carats. Hello! reports that the jewels are worth more than half a million dollars.

1. On Saturday, Zara wore more diamonds to the races, including a pair of diamond earrings and a gorgeous diamond cuff bracelet.

Jewel History: Wedding Presents of a Princess (1879)

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“Wedding Presents of a Princess”
(originally appeared in the New York Times on 15 Jan 1879)

From the Copenhagen correspondent of the London Standard — Among the presents which the Princess Thyra [1] received on the occasion of her marriage with His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland and Brunswick-Luneberg [2] may be mentioned the following:

Crown Princess Thyra wears her diamond cross (source)

The King and Queen of Denmark [3] presented their daughter with a splendid necklace in diamonds, with a cross attached; the Queen Dowager [4], a portrait of His Majesty, in oil painting; and Queen Victoria [5], a rich cashmere shawl and a medallion studded with pearls and containing a portrait of Her Majesty.

The Emperor and Empress of Russia [6], a splendid bracelet, with five rows of large pearls and brilliants; the Dowager Queen of Hanover [7; pictured above], a necklace and bracelet of pearls, rubies, and diamonds; and the Duke of Cumberland presented his wife with a complete set of jewels, in diamonds and sapphires.

The Prince of Wales [8] sent a magnificent Indian necklace of large pearls, raw diamonds, and emeralds; the Princess of Wales [pictured above], a traveling necessaire in silver, with embossed monograms in gold; and the children of the Prince and Princess each a bracelet set in brilliants.

The Princess Beatrice [9], a bracelet in chiseled gold and studded with brilliants, and the Duchess and the Duke of Cambridge [10], a silver-gilt inkstand, a bracelet, and two silver-gilt candlesticks. The Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia and the Czarevna (Princess Dagmar) [11; pictured above], a large locket most richly set with matchless sapphires and brilliants, and the Hereditary Princess Caroline of Denmark [12], a breakfast service in fine Danish china, with painting representing Danish views.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess [13; pictured above with their family] presented the Duchess with a most magnificent bracelet, containing seven very large brilliants. The Dowager Duchess Wilhelmina of Glucksburg [14], an antique ring in diamonds, which originally belonged to the wife of King Frederick V (Queen Louise, daughter of George II) [15].

The brothers of the king presented valuable ornaments, the ladies of the royal household beautiful embroideries, the Society for the Protection of Animals, of which the Princess is the patroness, a silver inkstand, while numerous presents, more or less costly, but all valuable as a proof of the general love and esteem in which the Duchess is held in Denmark, were received from all parts of the country.

I mentioned in my letter, giving a description of the royal wedding, the impression which the magnificent toilet of the Crown Princess created on all present. I am informed that the diamonds worn by Her Royal Highness on this occasion represented a value of at least 2,000,000 crowns, or something like 125,000 pounds. On the occasion of the marriage, the Duke of Cumberland distributed the sum of 100 guineas among the charities of Copenhagen. A private Danish gentleman spent about a similar amount in providing bread and meat to the poor, so that, as he stated, on this happy occasion no poor should want a good substantial supper.

NOTES
1. Princess Thyra of Denmark (1853-1933) was the fifth child of King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. She was also eventually the sister of the King of Denmark, the King of Greece, the Empress of Russia, and the Queen of the United Kingdom. Her life was a bit scandalous; when she was a teenager, she had an illegitimate daughter with an army officer. The baby, Kate, was given up for adoption shortly after birth. Thyra married the Duke of Cumberland in December 1878, and the couple had six children.
2. Crown Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland (1845-1923) was the son and heir of King George V of Hanover and a great-grandson of King George III of the United Kingdom. The Hanoverians lost their throne in 1866, but Ernst August inherited his father’s British title, the Cumberland dukedom, in 1878. (He was later deprived of that title by the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917.)
3. King Christian IX (1818-1906) reigned in Denmark from 1863 until his death. His queen was Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817-1898), who was herself the daughter of a Danish princess.
4. Queen Caroline Amalie (1796-1881) was the widow of King Christian VIII of Denmark. She was the country’s dowager queen for three decades.
5. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819-1901) was the groom’s first cousin once removed.
6. At the time of the wedding, the czar of Russia was Alexander II (1818-1881); his consort was Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (1824-1880). Their son, Alexander, was married to Thyra’s sister, Dagmar.
7. The groom’s mother, Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1818-1907), was the widow of King George V of Hanover.
8. The future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (1841-1910). He was a second cousin of the groom, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, was the bride’s sister. Ernst August and Thyra met in 1875 while they were each visiting Bertie and Alexandra at Sandringham.
9. Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857-1944) was the youngest child of Queen Victoria (and therefore also a second cousin of the groom).
10. The Duchess of Cambridge (1797-1889) was the daughter-in-law of King George III of the United Kingdom and the great-aunt of the groom. As she was born Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, she was actually also the great-aunt of the bride. The Duke of Cambridge mentioned here is her son, Prince George (1819-1904), who was born and educated in Hanover.
11. The heir to the Russian throne at the time of the wedding was Alexander (1845-1894), who would later become Alexander III. He was married to Thyra’s sister, Dagmar of Denmark (1847-1928), who used the name Marie Feodorovna after she married into the imperial family.
12. Hereditary Princess Caroline of Denmark (1793-1881) was the elder of the two surviving daughters of King Frederik VI of Denmark and his queen, Marie of Hesse-Kassel. She was also the widow (and first cousin) of Hereditary Prince Ferdinand of Denmark.
13.Thyra’s brother, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (1843-1912), was married to Princess Lovisa of Sweden (1851-1926).
14. Wilhelmine Marie of Denmark (1808-1891) was the younger surviving daughter of King Frederik VI, and the younger sister of Hereditary Princess Caroline. She was the widow of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
15. Queen Louise of Denmark (1724-1751) was the daughter of King George II of Great Britain and the wife of King Frederik V of Denmark. She was the great-grandmother of the Dowager Duchess.

Tiara Timeline: The Danish Rubies

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Time for another journey back into the mists of jewel history, everybody! Today, we’re tracing the journey of the ruby parure worn today by Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. It’s a set that was made for a commoner and never intended to be a part of a royal collection — and then history took an extremely interesting detour…
Désirée Clary, ca. 1807 (source)

1795: In April, Napoléon Bonaparte becomes engaged to Désirée Clary, the daughter of a silk merchant from Marseilles. However, shortly after the engagement, Napoléon meets Joséphine de Beauharnais. The engagement is broken in September, but Désirée remains close to the Bonaparte family, because her sister, Julie, is married to Napoléon’s brother Joseph.

1798: Désirée marries Jean Bernadotte. He is a soldier who had recently served as France’s ambassador in Vienna. Shortly after their marriage, Bernadotte becomes the French Minister of War, and within a year, Désirée gives birth to their only child, Oscar. Napoléon serves as Oscar’s godfather.

1804: Napoléon becomes the Emperor of the French, and he makes Bernadotte a Marshal of the Empire. The new emperor decides that he wants his coronation to be an especially glittering affair, and he gives the Marshals funds to bedeck their wives in new suites of jewels. Bernadotte uses the money to commission a jeweler in Paris (whose name is unfortunately not known today) to create a new parure for Désirée to wear at the imperial coronation.

On December 2, Désirée arrives at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris for the imperial coronation wearing her new parure, including an elaborate necklace, a bracelet, a pair of girandole earrings, and a large brooch. The set is made of diamonds and small rubies, which are cleverly set in groupings to make them look like much larger stones. At this point, the parure does not include a tiara, but it includes a set of hair ornaments.

1806: Now King of Italy, Napoléon rewards Bernadotte for his service in the Battle of Austerlitz with his own Italian principality, making him the Prince of Ponte Corvo. Désirée becomes an Italian princess, and her rubies become part of a royal collection for the first time.

1810: King Carl XIII of Sweden is sixty years old and has no legitimate children. The Swedish Riksdag begins searching for a suitable heir to the throne. First, they select Carl August, a Danish prince; however, he suddenly dies of a stroke during a military exercise in May. As a second choice, the Riksdag elects Bernadotte as the nation’s heir. He accepts, renounces his Italian title, and is formally adopted by Carl XIII, becoming the Crown Prince of Sweden. Désirée is the new crown princess, and the ruby parure becomes a part of the Swedish royal collection.

1811: Although she is now Sweden’s crown princess, Désirée does not adjust well to life in Sweden. She packs up her things, including her jewels, and hightails it back to France.

1818: Carl XIII of Sweden dies in February, and Bernadotte succeeds to the throne as King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden. Désirée also has a new name: Queen Desideria. But she doesn’t use the new moniker, and she still refuses to return to Sweden.

1822: Désirée’s son, Crown Prince Oscar, is in search of a bride. He leaves Sweden and reunites with his mother for the first time in years. Oscar eventually chooses Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, the granddaughter of Désirée’s former love rival, Joséphine de Beauharnais, as his wife. Some think the choice of a bride with French imperial roots was made in part to try to lure Désirée back to Sweden.

1823: Désirée finally returns to Sweden, accompanying Joséphine to Stockholm. Although she initially intends to go straight back to France, she ends up staying in Sweden for the rest of her life, and the rubies finally find a home at the royal court in Stockholm.

Coronation of Queen Desideria of Sweden (source)

1829: Désirée is finally crowned in Stockholm. Here’s a photograph of her coronation gown; the illustrations of the event do not clearly show her jewels.

King Oscar I of Sweden (source)

1844: Carl XIV Johan dies, and Oscar and Joséphine take the throne as King Oscar I and Queen Josefina of Sweden.

Queen Josefina of Sweden (source)

1860: Désirée dies in Stockholm in December. She leaves the ruby set to her daughter-in-law, Queen Josefina. They join the Leuchtenberg sapphires and the elaborate diamond tiara she wears above (worn today by the Queen of Norway) in Josefina’s jewelry box.

Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Lovisa (source)

1869: Josefina’s granddaughter, Princess Lovisa, marries Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. As a wedding present for Lovisa, Josefina selects Désirée’s ruby parure. She notes that she has chosen to give the diamond and ruby set to Lovisa because the jewels are red and white — the colors of the Danish flag. The rubies travel with Lovisa to her new home in Copenhagen.

Queen Alexandrine (source)

1898: Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Lovisa’s son, Prince Christian, marries Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. As a wedding gift, Lovisa gives Alexandrine the hair ornaments from the ruby parure, which have been transformed into a wreath-like tiara. The piece features diamond leaves with small ruby “berries” interspersed throughout. Alexandrine often wears the tiara low across her brow, in the fashionable early twentieth-century bandeau style.

1906: Lovisa, who has retained the rest of the ruby parure, becomes Denmark’s queen consort when her husband takes the throne as King Frederik VIII.

1912: Frederik VIII dies, and Christian and Alexandrine become King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. Alexandrine now has the crown jewels of Denmark, including the elaborate emerald parure, at her disposal; however, Queen Lovisa still keeps the rest of the ruby parure in her personal collection.

1926: Queen Lovisa dies in Copenhagen, and the ruby parure is finally together again as a set when it is inherited by Christian and Alexandrine.

1935: Alexandrine does not keep the ruby set for long. When her son, Crown Prince Frederik, marries Princess Ingrid of Sweden, she gives the entire parure to Ingrid as a wedding present.

1947: King Christian X of Denmark dies, and Frederik and Ingrid become the country’s king and queen consort. The same year, Ingrid gives the ruby tiara a significant makeover. Using material from two brooches, she has the tiara transformed from a small wreath-style bandeau into a large wreath tiara. The piece becomes one of her signature jewels, so much so that you’ll often see the set referred to as “Queen Ingrid’s rubies.”

1950s: Ingrid’s daughter, the young Princess Benedikte, wears the ruby set, including the tiara, the necklace, and the girandole earrings, as a part of a costume.

1966: Ingrid wears the rubies for a number of high-profile gala events throughout the 1960s, including state visits and royal wedding celebrations.

2000: Ingrid dies in November, and she leaves the ruby parure to her grandson, Crown Prince Frederik, with the intention that it should be worn by his future wife. In a twist of fate, Frederik has just met the woman he will eventually marry: he and Mary Donaldson met for the first time at the Olympics held in Sydney that September.

2004: Mary Donaldson wears the ruby set for the first time at a gala dinner held just before her wedding in May. She becomes the first commoner to wear the ruby parure since its original owner, Désirée Clary.

She also wears them at the gala held the night before her wedding, pairing the jewels with a red dress.

2007: Crown Princess Mary wears the rubies to the annual New Year’s Levee in Copenhagen.

2008: Mary wears the tiara at the New Year’s Levee for a second year in a row.

That May, she wears the rubies for Prince Joachim’s wedding to Princess Marie.

2009: Mary selects the tiara for a third year for the New Year’s Court.

2010: Mary wears the tiara again on New Year’s Day. That February, she tasks the Danish jewelers and goldsmiths at Marianne Dulong to restore and adapt the parure. The tiara is made slightly smaller, so that it sits more gracefully atop Mary’s head. Leaves taken from the tiara are transformed into hairpins, and a ring is added to the parure. The studs of the girandole earrings are also adapted so they can also be worn with pearl drops. You can read more about the project here; there’s also a video (in Danish) that features fascinating clips and images of the restoration.

The adapted parure makes its public debut in April, when Mary wears the tiara, the newly-altered earrings, and the brooch at Queen Margrethe’s birthday celebrations.

Mary wears the tiara that summer in Sweden for the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. It’s the first time that Mary takes the tiara on a foreign trip, and it seems especially fitting that she chooses to bring it back to Sweden for the wedding of a Swedish princess whose has “Désirée” among her middle names.

2012: After missing the 2011 New Year’s Levee because of the impending births of the twins, Mary returns to the New Year’s Court the next year and again rings in the new year with her heirloom rubies.

For Queen Margrethe’s ruby jubilee that January, the ruby parure is a natural choice; Mary also wears the new hairpins with the set.

In October, Mary wears the rubies in Luxembourg at Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume’s pre-wedding gala dinner.

2013: Mary shows off the tiara and modified versions of the necklace and earrings at the next year’s New Year’s Levee.

2014: For the annual new year outing, Mary wears the tiara and the studs of the earrings, plus the brooch attached to a velvet choker.

2015: Mary makes her customary appearance in the parure on New Year’s Day, wearing the pearl version of the earrings and the modified necklace with the tiara.